ISLAMABAD - The war of accusations between Senator Pervaiz Rasheed and Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan turned ugly with former terming the latter a “hypocrite”, while the latter terming the former a “compulsive liar” and “brown-nose”.

Interestingly, party leadership silently watched the two former federal ministers hurl barbs at each other and implying tacit approval of all this, as former interior minister Ch Nisar Ali Khan for quite some time, especially after the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif by the apex court, has developed serious policy differences with the party leadership.

Some insiders in the N-League were of the view that Senator Pervaiz Rasheed could not do what he had been doing against Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan on his own and definitely he had the blessing of the party leadership.

On Tuesday, Senator Pervaiz Rasheed, while responding to media questions at the NAB court dubbed Ch Nisar Ali Khan a “hypocrite” who according to him could not have any standing without the party, and referred to defeat in elections he had contested not on party ticket.

Responding to Pervaiz Rasheed, the spokesman of Ch Nisar Ali Khan dubbed Pervaiz Rasheed “sycophant” and “a compulsive liar”.

His assertion that Ch Nisar Ali Khan never won any election without Lion symbol is an example of his being untruthful and lie, the spokesman said.

Ch Nisar Ali Khan contested the elections of 1985, 1988, 1990 and 2013 (provincial assembly) without “lion” symbol and won by the grace of Almighty Allah, he said.

The spokesman further said that the Dawn Leaks Committee in its report identified him being untruthful and held him responsible for concealing the facts.

It would be more appropriate that instead of indulging in giving unnecessary statements, he should persuade government to make the Dawn Leaks Report public, he said. 

Sources in the ruling PML-N informed The Nation that the party chief, Nawaz Sharif, was not happy the way Ch Nisar Ali Khan was coming up with statements in clash with the party’s narrative against the judiciary and the judgement handed down by the five-member apex court bench disqualifying him for life.

A senior party leader who did not want to disclose his identity agreed to the point that a person like Senator Pervaiz Rasheed could not utter a word against Ch Nisar Ali Khan without the blessing of someone senior within the party.

Maryam Nawaz Sharif and his strong clout within the party, which had proved its dominance within the party by prevailing over the policy decisions in the recent past, was also not comfortable with the way Ch Nisar Ali Khan was taking Maryam casually, as on a number of occasions he dubbed her as a kid, who has yet to prove her metal as a political leader.

Ch Nisar Ali Khan’s closeness with Chief Minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif was also not going well with certain quarters within the party.

The complete silence of party leadership on the foul utterances of Senator Pervaiz Rasheed and his demand from Ch Nisar Ali Khan to show grace and quit party on principles on having sharp policy differences with party leadership completely showed that his strings are controlled from somewhere else.